Visualizing the Geography of Student Debt

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, an economic research organization, has created Mapping Student Debt, a website which maps data about the $1.1 trillion in student debt owed by 42 million Americans. The map uses data from the U.S. Department of Education linked with tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service to compare household student loan balances and delinquency rates to medium income by zip code. The map reveals several insights into the relationship between geography and student debt, such as how affluent zip codes tend to have higher student loan balances and that low-income zip codes have higher delinquency rates.